Sunday, November 01, 2009

green eggs & the met - a recap

friday night was a great night for fresno. i mean, the weather was crisp, it was the beginning of the weekend, and the met was hosting green eggs & the met, which i was going to attend.

the evening got off to a great start with dinner over @ oggi. i had the lasagna and enjoyed it. i also was pleased that they were serving minestrone that night. it doesn't seem like much of a surprise that an italian restaurant serves minestrone, but the minestrone here is delicious.

after dinner, we headed down to the met. for the last event, we parked on the street, but tonight we decided to hit up the parking lot, which, btw, was free. it would've been free on the street, too, but i like pointing out that you can park in the met's lot when you're visiting. and, you should go visit. not only do they have the artwork of dr. seuss, but they also have shows by matisse and chagall right now.

speaking of the work of dr. seuss, it blew me away. of course, there are drawings from his books, but his other pieces are great, and interesting. i didn't know that he did work for the u.s. military under director frank capra. and, many of his pieces of that era show the foolishness of bigotry while being visually intriguing. i also enjoyed the taxidermy pieces.

and now onto the event. remember how i went to dinner before the event? i wish i hadn't eaten so much because the hors d'oevres looked amazing. i talked to people that had some, and they seemed to enjoy them all. i did have one of the seuss-y cocktails before switching to well drinks. i had a "sneetch on the beach" which was like a sex on the beach. pretty good, but not a type of drink i would normally order. but i enjoyed it enough. the bartenders for the evening were very nice, and i'm glad that i could tip them. i also want to congratulate the met for pricing their drinks very reasonably ($3 beers, $6 cocktails).

the decorations for the event were immaculate and really did help set the mood for the bands. ass mentioned in our podcast before the event, ceilidh wanted to transport people into the world of seuss, and i think she accomplished that very well.

finally, to the bands. first up was yesterday's chonies, who i think i've mentioned before here that i don't care for their music. but in this venue it seemed very appropriate and interesting. i still wouldn't book them for my birthday party, but it worked for that night. wheels of fortune went on second and played a good set. their sound was a little different because their bass player was sick and not there. a good set, but i think i've seen better from them. up third was uni and her ukulele. i didn't hear all her set, but thought that what i did hear was fun. it takes guts to get up in front of a big crowd with just you and a ukulele, but uni does it well. finally, el olio wolof was up. honestly, el olio pretty much was what sold me on the event. i love el olio, and haven't seen them in ages (the sort of broke up but have reformed). el olio was as good as ever, and i had such a great time listening to the music and even dancing a bit. i haven't danced in ages, but how can't get up and move to such good music. anyway, i recorded el olio's last song, and present it to you.

not really good quality sound, but whatever. you can also see one of the sets that was done for the evening in the background.

it was a great night, and the met staff is doing good things. congrats to everyone that had a hand in putting on this event. i can't wait for the next one to come along.

Thoroughly cool event.(It was great visiting with you and yours---hope I didn't talk your ears off.)The event had so much going for it----for the eyes, the ears and even the belly (all those little tastey-ables).Big cheers to the Met and hopes that they can continue the momentum with more like this.